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US 5,145,129 AGranted
Unmanned boom/canard propeller v/stol aircraft
AssigneeGrumman Aerospace Corporation
InventorDavid F. Gebhard
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An unmanned aircraft is provided which dual turbo shaft engines diving contra-rotating propellers. A bow plane provides pitch control during normal aircraft cruising. The contra-rotating propellers generate a slipstream for wing and tail sections that permit the aircraft to execute hover without the use of complicated tiltable rotor or jet assemblies.
Claims9
An unmanned aircraft comprising:
- a fuselage having a pair of propellers mounted to a forward end thereof;
- wings extending perpendicularly from a central portion of the fuselage;
- a vertical tail section to a rear portion of the fuselage and located in the slipstream generated by the propellers;
- a horizontal tail section connected to the rear portion of the fuselage, perpendicular to the vertical tail section and located in the slipstream generated by the propellers;
- a pair of booms mounted to the wings and outboard of the propellers extending in parallel spaced relation tot he fuselage and forwardly of the propellers;
- a pair of nacelles, each of which is respectively connected to one of the booms and extends in parallel relation thereto;
- a wing extension connected to each nacelle and aligned with a respective wing, the extension being perpendicularly foldable with respect to the wing for increasing performance during hover and transition between hover and cruise flight;
- engines located in the nacelles;
- a drive train connected between the engines and the propellers for rotating the propellers;
- and
- a bow plane connected between forward portions of the booms, the plane positioned in parallel spaced relation with the wing and forwardly of the propellers thereby being located outside the slipsteam of the propellers and serving to control pitch of the aircraft during aircraft cruising.
8 more elements
An unmanned aircraft comprising:
- a fuselage having a pair of contra-rotating propellers mounted to a forward end thereof;
- wings extending perpendicularly from a central portion of the fuselage;
- a vertical tail section connected to a rear portion of the fuselage and located in the slipstream generated by the propellers;
- a horizontal tail section connected to the rear portion of the fuselage, perpendicular to the vertical tail section and located in the slipstream generated by the propellers;
- a pair of booms mounted to the ends of the wings and extending in parallel spaced relation to the fuselage and forwardly of the propellers;
- a pair of nacelles, each of which is respectively connected to one of the booms and extends in parallel relation thereto;
- a wing extension connected to each nacelle and aligned with a respective wing, the extension being perpendicularly foldable with respect to the wing for increasing performance during hover and transition between hover and cruise flight;
- engines located in the nacelles;
- a drive train connected between the engines and the propellers for rotating the propellers, the drive train having an output shaft means connected to each engine and extending transversely through a respective wing, and gear box means located in the fuselage and connecting the output shaft means to the propellers;
- and
- a bow plane connected between forward portions of the booms, the plane positioned in parallel spaced relation with the wing and forwardly of the propellers thereby being located outside the slipstream of the propellers and serving to control pitch of the aircraft during aircraft cruising.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.